Yesterday was an amazing day at school. Normally when we walk into class Miss Trees Are Green is already setting class up for the day. Yesterday it was different. We all walked in a cold classroom and sat at our desks. Everyone waited quietly. We waited and waited and waited some more. Headmistress Heather came in to wish us good morning and told us that Miss Trees Are Green had an unbelievably bad cold and would be away for a few days. We were told that a replacement teacher would come to class shortly. Everyone let out a big sigh. Headmistress Heather told us to be on our best behaviour and sit quietly. We did!

Within moments of Headmistress Heather leaving, the class turned into a whirlwind. In bounced a young Japanese lady carrying a large bag. Her clothes were funky and she had a big smile on her face. She was talking Japanese and we did not know what she was saying. We all looked at one another and wondered what our day would be like.

“Ohayoo gozaimasu. Watashi wa Sashisushimoto desu,” she said and then bowed. We all laughed. She then spoke in English and said, “Good morning, I am Sashisushimoto.” We then understood what the Japanese meant. She wrote down “ohayoo gozaimasu” on a card along with the English meaning. She asked us to repeat after her. She placed the card on the classroom wall so we could remember how to say “good morning” in Japanese. She then repeated her name and then asked us ours. Her name was so difficult to say that Toby asked if we could call her “Miss Sushi” and she agreed. Miss Sushi had difficulty saying some of our names. She asked Toby if she could call him “To,” everyone laughed and he was happy with his nickname as it made him feel special.

Miss Sushi asked us the schedule for the day. People shouted out subjects. History, Geography, Science, Maths, PE, Religion, Art, Language, Reading, and Cooking. She looked surprised and said, “Wow, so many!” She wrote the subjects down on the whiteboard to act as a reminder of what we were to do. Poppy was concerned about if we would still have snack and lunch, Miss Sushi reassured us all that we would.

Miss Sushi asked us to help her move the desks to the edges of the classroom, so we had a large empty space in the middle of the classroom. Some people were concerned as we had never done this before. She asked us to take off our shoes and place them at the side of the classroom. She took her shoes off and pulled out a pair of Japanese slippers from her bag to put on her feet. She explained about the Japanese tradition of wearing “outside shoes” outside to keep the dirt out and “inside shoes” to keep the house clean. It was fun to not wear school shoes in the classroom. We all felt like we were in a Japanese house after Miss Sushi’s explanation about the shoes.

Miss Sushi took out a radio from her bag. She informed us we would do “Radio Taiso!” She asked us to follow what she was doing and then put on music. We did lots of stretching, twisting, jumping, and breathing exercises. Miss Sushi told us that everyone does these exercises each morning and it is a way for Japanese people to keep fit and healthy. It was quite tiring and some moves were difficult to do. We all tried to keep up with Miss Sushi. Feeling exhausted from the exercises, we sat down on the carpet. Miss Sushi went to the whiteboard and crossed off PE on her list. We all smiled.

While we took a break, Miss Sushi placed an extremely large piece of paper on the classroom floor. She also set up her laptop to project images on to the whiteboard. Miss Sushi drew an exceptionally large map of Japan. She taught us the names of the four main islands. She labelled them on the map. Miss Sushi then asked us to look at the whiteboard. She went through each island and showed us pictures related to each island. We saw photos of the snow festival in Hokkaido, and then temples, shrines, odori and udon that are famous in Shikoku, photos of hot springs, volcanoes, monkeys represented Kyushu. We wondered about the main large island. Before she explained about that, she pointed to Toba Bay in Mie Prefecture. She told us a story about the Ama pearl divers. Miss Sushi took pearls from her bag and allowed us to pass them around to see them. We were all incredibly surprised.

Miss Sushi asked us to put our shoes back on. We thought that it signalled the end of the fun part of the day, but it was not. She put on her “outside” shoes and she took us into the school garden. ‘Ikimashoo!” she said in a loud voice. We gathered that meant “Let’s go!” We identified plants, flowers, and trees. We took leaves from the cherry blossom trees and maple trees. Miss Sushi explained about the cherry blossom and maple seasons in Japan and about the concept of “Hanami” – flower viewing. She taught us that “Sakura” was cherry blossom and “Momoji” is for maple. We sat under the trees as she told us stories and how the trees make pink and red carpets with their leaves. It sounded amazing.